


Strike!

by emmerrr



Series: To live will be an awfully big adventure [10]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fox bonding, Fun and Fluff, Gen, M/M, is a tag that should exist, the Foxes love Neil and Neil loves the Foxes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 20:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmerrr/pseuds/emmerrr
Summary: “Alright,” Dan said, clearly taking charge. “It’s Neil’s birthday next week.”Andrew already knew this, so he didn’t respond.“And we were wondering if you had made any plans with him?”The plan was to do nothing, but as that wasn’t strictly a plan, Andrew sort of had to concede the point. “No,” he said.*(Remember when I wrote a fic about the Foxes playing dodgeball? This time I made them go bowling.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> did someone say FOX SHENANIGANS? 
> 
> (I did. it was me.)

“It’s Neil’s birthday next week,” Dan said, offhand, flicking through her calendar.

“No,” Matt said, not looking up from his laptop on which he was writing an essay that was already overdue. “It’s not ‘til the 31st.”

“Yeah, I know. But it’s already the 25th, babe, it’s next week.”

Matt slammed his laptop down on the desk and looked up in horror. “WHAT?” he yelled. “But I haven’t got him anything yet!”

Dan smiled fondly. “You still have time.”

“Yeah but not as much thought will have gone into it,” Matt said sullenly. “I lost track of the date, it’s been so hectic.”

“Well, how about we _do_ something for it instead? Take him somewhere? He’ll probably like that better anyway,” Dan said.

Matt pondered this for a moment. “True,” he said. “But where would we go, for starters, and also, what if Andrew has already made plans with him?”

Dan shrugged. “No harm in asking.”

***

Following a cheery knock on the door, Andrew opened it up to be greeted by the beaming faces of all of the upperclassmen.

“No,” he said, and started to close the door.

“Andrew, wait a second, please,” came Renee’s calming voice, and Andrew sighed inwardly before re-opening the door.

“Make it quick,” he said bluntly.

Allison peered behind Andrew into the suite he shared with Kevin and Neil. “Is Neil here?” she asked.

“He’s at the stadium with Kevin, and you’re wasting time.”

“Alright,” Dan said, clearly taking charge. “It’s Neil’s birthday next week.”

Andrew already knew this, so he didn’t respond.

“And we were wondering if you had made any plans with him?”

The plan was to do nothing, but as that wasn’t _strictly_ a plan, Andrew sort of had to concede the point. “No,” he said.

Matt crinkled his brow. “Really? Nothing at all?”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever met Neil, but he’s not exactly big on parties,” Andrew said dryly.

“Yeah, alright, smartass,” Dan said. “We were just asking because we want to take him somewhere, do something, y’know? Something all together, like when we went to the cabin last year.”

It sounded like something Andrew definitely didn’t want to do, but it also sounded like something Neil would enjoy. Andrew supposed he could always shelve his ‘nothing’ plans for whenever they got got back from wherever they were going.

Of course, he couldn’t give in that easy.

“That’s very vague,” he said. “Where do you propose we take him?”

Allison shrugged. “We hadn’t got that far yet.”

Renee smiled sweetly. “We were waiting to see if it was doable first,” she said. “Is it?”

Andrew did sigh this time. “It has to be somewhere close by, and it can’t have anything to do with Exy. Or baseball. And the baby Foxes can’t come.”

“Not that I care, but why not baseball?” Matt asked.

“Because Neil hates baseball. Obviously.”

***

The girls followed Matt back to the room he shared with Nicky and Aaron, who were playing a video game, naturally.

“What’s up, guys?” Nicky asked as they all traipsed in.

“We’re brainstorming,” said Allison, plonking herself down on the sofa between him and Aaron.

"Brainstorming what?"

“Birthday ideas for Neil. Andrew gave us the go ahead to take him somewhere and do something fun, but that’s as far as we’ve got,” Dan said.

“Count me out,” Aaron said immediately.

“Fine,” Allison said snidely. “You can stay here and babysit the freshmen.”

Aaron looked appalled. “Count me back in.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“Hmmm,” Nicky hummed, thinking out loud, and then his face lit up. “Holy shit, Matt, we need the List.”

Matt brightened. “I forgot about the List.”

“What list?” Renee asked.

“The _List_!” Nicky insisted. “The list we made of all the mundane shit Neil’s never done before!”

“I thought that was just a list of movies he’s never seen and stuff,” Dan said.

“No, no, we added to it.” Matt hopped up and headed to his desk, opening the drawer and shuffling around his various papers until he evidently found what he was looking for. “A-ha!” he said, triumphantly, brandishing a piece of paper at the room like he’d just found the Holy Grail. He came back and showed it to Dan. “See?” he said, pointing. “We’ve crossed off dodgeball, because he’s played that now.”

“Ah, memories,” Nicky said fondly.

“Easy for you to say, you didn’t even play. You just refereed,” Aaron said darkly. Aaron had complained for weeks about being targeted by Andrew specifically.

“I swear, I still have bruises from that day,” Allison added.

“What else is on the list?” Renee prompted.

Dan scrolled through. “Let’s see. . .fishing — nah, too boring. Surfing — no can do, beach is too far. . .” Dan muttered under her breath a few times and then her eyes lit up. “Guys. _Guys_! He’s never been bowling!”

Aaron sighed and dropped his head back against the sofa cushions. “No,” he said emphatically.

“Aw,” Allison said, no sympathy in her tone whatsoever. “Too bad it’s not up to you, you miserable little bastard.”

Aaron, affronted, looked like he was about to say something else, but Renee cut in smoothly. “Bowling sounds like it would be fun, especially if Neil’s never been before.”

“Works for me,” Matt said with a grin. “I’m _awesome_ at bowling.”

“Did Andrew say bowling was okay?” Nicky asked.

“Hey, Andrew only gave us four rules; something local, no Exy, no baseball, and no baby Foxes. We’re going bowling,” said Dan.

Aaron rubbed a hand down his face in defeat. “Kevin’s going to be a _nightmare_ ,” he said.

***

After the first couple of times walking into a room and having the Foxes halt their conversation and look up at him sheepishly before rapidly changing the subject, Neil ascertained that plans were being made. Plans that very obviously had something to do with _him_ , and as he was aware of what date was fast approaching, it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together.

Neil’s teammates were not as sneaky as they thought they were, but Neil was happy to play along like he didn’t know they had something planned. He wasn’t that bothered about his birthday, but he liked that _they_ were. It was another sense of belonging that he didn’t think he’d ever experience.

On March 31st, after practice was over and everyone had showered and changed, Wymack called Neil into the lounge. He tossed a card to Neil, which he caught clumsily, not expecting it.

“Happy Birthday. That’s from me and Abby,” Wymack said.

“Thanks,” Neil said, and opened it. The card made him smile, a cartoon fox on the front, and Wymack looked a little embarrassed when Neil caught his eye.

“Abby picked it out,” he grumbled.

Neil laughed, but it cut short when he saw what was in the card; a $200 giftcard to Excites. “Coach,” he said in wonder. “You didn’t have to.”

“Ah well, it’s a big birthday, right? What is it now?”

“Twenty-one,” Neil said, then smiled. “Officially, at least.”

“Exactly. Couldn’t just give you nothing.”

Neil was unbelievably touched. “I — thank you,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it. Now,” David nodded at someone over Neil’s shoulder. “I think everyone’s waiting for you.”

Andrew appeared silently at Neil’s side. “Come on then, birthday boy. Let’s get this over with.”

***

Nicky had wanted to blindfold Neil so he couldn’t see where they were going, but Neil steadfastly refused, instead offering to close his eyes when they were almost at their destination.

“But you might _cheat_.”

“Nicky, I promise I won’t cheat.”

“Fine then,” Nicky said petulantly. “Party pooper.”

“If it’s _my_ party then I can’t really be a party pooper, right?”

A minute out from wherever they were going, Nicky told Neil to close his eyes, and when the car rolled to a stop, he was ordered to stay there for a moment, and everyone else exited the Maserati. Neil assumed he had to wait until Matt’s truck arrived with everyone else.

Renee had rode with them today, as Katelyn was coming too and Aaron hadn’t wanted her in the same car as Andrew, so they had hopped in the bed of Matt’s truck instead.

A couple of minutes later, Neil heard the passenger door open.

“Neil,” came Andrew’s voice. “You can get out now.”

“I can’t see.”

Andrew huffed, and it made Neil smile. “Here.” Neil felt a warm hand wrap around his wrist and he carefully, with Andrew’s help, maneuvered his way out of the car.

“Are his eyes still closed?”

“ _Yes_ , Nicky, I still don’t know where we are,” said Neil, fondly exasperated. Andrew pulled him a little further forward and then let go.

“Alright, you can look now!” This was Matt’s voice, and when Neil opened his eyes, his teammates plus Katelyn were all beaming at him (with the exception of Andrew, Aaron and Kevin, who looked like they normally did) in front of large glass doors leading into a building. From their faces, Neil dragged his gaze upwards to the large neon sign that adorned the front of the building. _Hollywood Bowl_ , it read, with a flickering image of bowling pins falling over.

Neil grinned. “Bowling?” he asked.

“Bowling,” Dan affirmed with a nod.

“I’ve never been bowling before.”

“That, my friend,” said Matt, looping an arm around Neil’s shoulders and ushering him towards the entrance, “is entirely the point.”

***

Inside, once they’d retrieved their bowling shoes, Nicky and Allison fought over the control machine before finally deciding to work together to input everyone’s names. Neil left them to it and went over to Andrew, who was lingering over the ball return.

“Do I have to pick a ball?” Neil asked.

Andrew nodded.

“But. . . will I get it back after I’ve bowled it?”

The corner of Andrew’s mouth quirked up, the tiniest amount, for a split second. “Yes, Neil,” he said. “It comes back up through the ball return, see?” Andrew pointed to the ball return across from theirs where another group was playing, and Neil watched as a ball popped out of the hole and rolled down to settle alongside the rest of them. “There’s more than one ball of the same size, anyway, so you don’t have to wait for the exact same one.”

Neil nodded, then proceeded to test out the weight and feel of every single bowling ball at their disposal, before settling on the first one he’d tried.

“I like this one,” he said.

“Fantastic,” Andrew drawled, bored already.

Neil smirked. “You look cute in your little bowling shoes.”

Andrew shot him a look but didn’t respond, and Neil took it as a win.

Finally, Allison and Nicky came over to join everyone else. "Matt, you're up first," Nicky said.

Neil looked up at the screen and raised his eyebrows. "I thought you'd put terrible nicknames for everyone."

Allison scowled. "Dan wouldn't let us. And besides, Neil 'I'm Fine' Josten wouldn't have fit, anyway."

"Hilarious," Neil said dryly, and Allison stuck her tongue out at him.

"Watch and learn, kid," Matt called over, as he picked up what looked like the heaviest ball possible and made his way over to the line. He made no run up, no preamble, just brought his arm back and then forwards and released the ball in one fluid motion. It sailed right down the middle and Neil watched as the bowling pins were all knocked down. "Strike!" Matt said excitedly, whirling around with a grin.

"Not bad," Dan said. "I'm still gonna kick your ass, though."

"Aw," Matt said. "It's cute that you think that."

Neil stifled a laugh as Dan gave Matt a dangerous smile and took her turn. She didn't get a strike, but cleared up for the spare. "Just warming up," she told a smug looking Matt on her way back to her seat.

Aaron was up next, and discovered that Nicky had programmed the guard rail for him. "Really?" he asked his cousin in exasperation.

Nicky blinked innocently, but was clearly trying not to laugh. "What? I thought you'd appreciate the extra help; you are, after all, fucking terrible at bowling."

Aaron looked like he was going to snap something undoubtedly unkind, but a touch of Katelyn's hand on his arm calmed him down, and he instead picked up a ball and all but threw it down the lane. It bounced from side to side off the guard rail, and eventually ended up slipping right down the corner of the bowling pins, bypassing them entirely. It was quite a feat in a pathetic sort of way.

Aaron's second go knocked down three pins but he was still miles behind, and he stomped back over with a face of thunder. "I fucking  _hate_ bowling," he muttered.

"On second thought," Andrew said from next to Neil, "bowling was a great idea."

***

Neil wasn't very good at bowling, his score placing him near the bottom of table (although at least he had done better than Aaron, who had spent the entire time looking positively mutinous), but he had enjoyed himself anyway. He liked watching his friends enjoy themselves, and bowling didn't require enough effort for Neil to feel as competitive over as he had when the Foxes introduced him to dodgeball.

Nicky had come next to last, but wasn't bothered in the slightest. He prided himself on how many gutterballs he made, and deduced himself King of the gutterballs, a feat which Kevin was quick to tell him was nothing to be proud of. Kevin, naturally, had taken the whole thing very seriously, going about it in a typically mechanical and Kevin-like fashion. Perfect technique that yielded results, although his score left him middle of the table, perfectly adequate. He had tried giving Aaron some pointers but it had not gone down well.

Allison and Katelyn had both started out fairly strong, but their skill levels notably petered out the more they drank (because some bowling alleys apparently served alcohol — who knew?). Matt and Dan got bogged down in their own personal competition, Matt narrowly coming out of the victor, but they were so engrossed that that hadn't even noticed Renee and Andrew smoking both of their scores with minimal effort.

Andrew, of course, was great at bowling. Neil didn't know what else he'd been expecting. He managed to get a strike on all but one of his turns, and he even got a spare in that one. It wasn't in Andrew's nature to be smug, but he did shoot his brother a pointed look after he'd taken his last turn, which Aaron took with predictable grace (which was to say he crossed his arms like a toddler and glared at Andrew until Katelyn distracted him with another drink).

Renee, surprisingly — or perhaps not surprisingly, when Neil stopped to think about it — won the whole damn thing. She really  _did_ get a strike on every turn, an impressive run that had even Kevin offer up his compliments. Renee just gave a serene smile. "It's all in the wrists," she said.

***

Later on, after returning to Fox Tower and having a few more drinks in the girls room, Neil was feeling warm and happy.

"So Neil," Matt asked. "How was your first bowling experience?"

"I liked it," he said. "We can go again, if you want."

"I am never going bowling ever again. As long as I live," Aaron said. He was leaning back against Katelyn's legs as she ran a hand through his hair.

"That's probably for the best," she agreed gently, which in Neil's semi-tired, semi-drunk state, was absolutely hilarious and he burst out laughing, earning himself a scowl from Aaron.

He pointed a shaky finger in Aaron's face. "Hey. You're not allowed to be a dick to me. It's my birthday."

"Only for another—" Aaron looked at his watch, " _—_ seven minutes."

Andrew nudged Neil with his foot, and when Neil turned around, Andrew flicked his eyes to the door. Neil understood and got to his feet. Andrew preceded him out the door and disappeared into the hall. Neil turned to the rest of the Foxes.

"Thank you for today. It's the best birthday I've ever had."

Dan clasped a hand to her chest. "Aw, Neil! You're gonna make me cry!"

"Me too," said Matt.

"Me three," added Nicky.

Allison grinned. "You're welcome. You'd best go after Andrew now, I think we've taken up more than enough of your attention for one day. Go and get him, loverboy."

Neil rolled his eyes but there was nothing malicious in it, and he stepped out into the hall, chorused _Happy Birthdays_ ringing out behind him. He closed the door.

Andrew was waiting for him in the stairwell and when Neil approached he leaned on the banister, staring up at Andrew with unabashed adoration.

"You gonna give me my birthday present now?"

Andrew cocked his head to the side. "I didn't get you anything."

"That just isn't true," Neil said, and Andrew rolled his eyes.

"So easy to please," he muttered.

"Uh huh."

"I didn't actually plan anything, you know. I thought we could just do nothing. That's what I had in mind before the upperclassmen decided to expand your horizons and take you bowling."

Neil took a step. "Nothing is  _exactly_ what I feel like doing," he said, abruptly exhausted. He wanted a cigarette in his hands, he wanted to make out with Andrew, and he wanted to go to sleep.

Andrew quirked an eyebrow. "Roof?" he asked.

Neil grinned. "Roof."

Andrew started up the stairs, Neil right behind him, and when they were nearly at the top, Andrew stopped and turned around. He flicked Neil lightly on the forehead.

"Happy Birthday, Neil."

**Author's Note:**

> the mood struck me so I wrote this. it's very unedited and probably shit but I started it at like half 9 and it's now well after midnight so I'm just gonna post it. it's super fluffy and self indulgent so I don't care how ooc it probably is haha.


End file.
